Excerpts from Regina Aragón's Keynote Address -- May 10, 2001

We must reject the mentality of scarcity that says that we must either serve people of color or white people living with HIV/AIDS; that we must either respond to the needs of gay and bisexual men or women living with AIDS; that we must choose between leadership in the domestic epidemic or global leadership; that funding must either come to Chicago or to Miami, New York, etc. We must reject this mentality because each of these goals is important. If we are determined to conquer AIDS we must work against AIDS everywhere and fight for the rights of all people living with and affected by HIV/AIDS.

Politicians love the mentality of scarcity because it makes their jobs so much easier when as advocates we lower our sights. The mentality of scarcity prevents us from asking for - demanding - what our communities need the most. It is our responsibility as community advocates to create the political pressure that prevents politicians from making counter-productive trade-offs. Look at the CARE Act as an example. When it was created in 1990, no one could have imagined that Congress would have retained the program for over 10 years. Yet Congress did retain the program, reauthorizing it twice and appropriating as much as $1.8 billion to the CARE Act in the current fiscal year. It is because of sustained and persistent local and national AIDS advocacy, which consistently delivers local information about the escalating AIDS crisis, that federal officials have responded with funding assistance. We must utilize these same strategies to educate the Bush Administration about the harm inadequate funding will have on communities most affected by AIDS.

Other thoughts on leadership:

1. Ironically, if there is one constant in the AIDS epidemic, it is change. Effective leaders do not try to avoid change; they manage it. They are always assessing changes in the environment, in the needs of consumers, in the political landscape, and planning for these occurrences. Planning takes time, and so it is often neglected - but it is time well spent.

2. Managing your agency or program effectively is a display of leadership. Yes, there are public roles for leaders of agencies or programs, but leadership is also displayed by good, strong managers. It's about making sure your staffs are well supervised, about budgeting conservatively and responsibly, and ensuring that your services are always client-centered. It is important to acknowledge that not all public leaders are good managers and visa versa. The skills needed for one job are different from those needed for the other. Don't try to ignore this; if there is a disconnect, correct it by hiring others who play to your weaknesses. A well-managed organization is an essential foundation for organizational leadership.

3. Good leaders must be willing to take thoughtful risks. Not risks that threaten the financial stability of your organization, never imprudent, but strategic risks are critical. You must be willing to challenge entrenched interests in the interest of better services, programs, and government. Sometimes this means being willing to risk being disliked by some of your peers.

4. Don't try to be everything to everybody. Sacrifice quantity for quality. In the face of such tremendous need, the temptation is always there to say yes to everything -- to spread your agency too thin and to try to provide every type of service or program that is asked of you, rather than to do fewer things well. This dynamic is also true at the individual level; do not sacrifice your personal life in order to work 24/7. This will involve making tough choices and learning to say no.

5. Don't look for political or community leadership in Washington, DC. In part because of community planning, community leadership on AIDS is now much more diffused than it was ten or even five years ago. Community leadership is now is cities and states across the country, not DC, and our challenge in the next decade is to figure out how to harness this more diffused form of leadership. Learning how to do this is particularly timely given the change in the Administration and President Bush's disappointing FY 2002 budget, which level funds the CARE Act and the Minority HIV/AIDS Initiative and recommends only modest increases for other HIV programs.

6. Leadership comes in many forms. There are many public leadership roles; planning council chairs, press spokesperson, full-time advocates, etc. These are all important, and if successful, may produce more funding and better policies. However, such efforts will not, in and of themselves, get more people into care, prevent the further transmission of HIV, or eliminate racial and ethnic disparities in access and health outcomes. The more private leadership roles many of you play on a day-to-day basis - helping clients navigate the care system, taking care of your health, reaching out to those not in care - these are equally important roles. And, ultimately, it will be your success in such roles that will affect how leadership is characterized in the third decade of AIDS.